Birthday cards

June 18, 2015

That's good because today we are bringing you another Art With Heart team blog hop and we are featuring all new products from the brand new Stampin' Up! annual catalogue which started on June 2nd.

Our group is one of the largest Stampin' Up! teams in Melbourne and offer support, fun and friendship to anyone who would like to join us; from Hobby demonstrators to Business demonstrators and anyone in between. For the month of June, there is a bonus joining special, you can select an extra two stamp sets of your choice for free, on top of your starter kit ($169). That's a really awesome offer and I am available today if you'd like to find out more - call me.

Back to the new catalogue! A suite of products which caught my eye are based around a gorgeous paper stack named "Cherry On Top". My whole team has been sharing ideas and creating projects based on these products which include Cotton Paper, Washi Tape, coordinating Lace Trim, embellishments, card, ink and so many stamp sets!

Today I have focused on just the Cherry on Top Paper, as I'm saving the other projects for my "Show Me The Goodies" events this coming weekend - I have to have something different to show the ladies!

I actually saw some gorgeous card samples in the catalogue and decided to firstly case them, then see what they would inspire. The first is really simple, it's a note card size and is on page 109 of the catalogue. Here's my version :

From here, I started thinking of other greeting stamps and different shapes and had a bit of fun playing.

I have used several stamp sets to go with these gorgeous, cheerful papers, including Hello Life, Something to Say, One Big Meaning and And Many More stamp sets.

The next card I cased from the catalogue is on page 105 - lots of details and layers in this one! Just love it.

You can see how the Designer Series Paper becomes a real feature in all of these cards. Because I was having fun with the balloons, I tried to carry the circle theme over in a similar layout and colours to the card I cased, I am not sure it really worked, but I had fun trying!

I love the fresh bright colours in these papers, it really lends itself to so many different types of cards, Well, what about the rest of the blog hop? Next up is Jenny Van Dijk.

If you follow the links at the bottom of each post, you will get right back to the start. If you get lost, you can come back to this complete list.

February 12, 2015

And since I've had my first real big holiday from stamping, and classes and everything else, I should also say "Happy New Year!!".

What an exciting way to come back from a good long break - with Sale-A-Bration in full swing and a Blog Hop to show you lots of the gorgeous products we have been using to make lovely, lovely projects!

If you place an order with me during Sale-a-bration, you can choose a free item with every $90 you spend in one transaction. There are lots of fabulous free items to choose from (ask me for a Sale-A-Bration Flyer and an Occasions Catalogue) and the promotion goes right through until 31st March.

Better still, become part of our awesome fun, friendly and supportive Art With Heart team. We have a really large team Australia wide that has been around since Stampin’ Up! came to Australia. We have a very active team forum and also have in person stamp days, challenges, card swaps, product shares and more. When you join during Sale-a-bration, you get to choose whatever you like from our catalogues, but pay just $169 for $235 worth of product (that’s a huge discount!) and you also get to choose between two free product options. It’s quick and easy to join online too. Ask me how!

Now let’s get into showing you what you can make with the great new products in the Occasions and Sale-a-bration catalogues. You may be starting here or may have come to my blog from my gorgeous friend in Adelaide, Kathryn Mangelsdorf.

Just have a lovely browse and at the end of each blog post you'll see a link button to take you to the next one, eventually you'll go full circle.

I chose to show you a couple of my FAVOURITE Sale-A-Bration products today - a stamp set, and a fabulous, gorgeous, wonderful Specialty Designer Series Paper ( DSP).

I decided to start with the DSP - it's called Irresistably Yours and yes, it's all white with delicious white embossed motifs - in this case stars. This means you can sponge, brayer, spritz all over it and then wipe the excess ink back to reveal the embossing - how could I resist sponging rainbows over it?

I teamed the lovely star design with the Confetti Stars Border Punch which was in our Holiday Catalogue and is a carry over item - along with lots of other Christmas goodies.

I then matched these two products with the cute and fun Big Day Stamp Setwhich is a stamp set you can choose for FREE with your Sale-A-Bration $90 order. Love this fun set!

Quite a number of Art With Heart team demonstrators attended a Stampin' Up! event last Saturday - Partytime Warragul which was a really fun day out - and as part of the preparations I made these twelve card fronts for a team swap which my team did to coincide with the event.

I loved the bright primary colours so much, and I wanted to use the stamp set a bit more, so I made another card using all the same products.

First I sponged more of the rainbow background.

Then I stamped and coloured the cake from the stamp set.

Then I put them together with some layers of Pacific Point Card stock and the super delicious White Jute Ribbon from the Occasions Catalogue. Love this card - so happy and cheerful!

Well, as you can see - I just had too much fun with these - such cheerful colours and such fun images that truly do co-ordinate with products we already have!

But, we'd better keep this blog hop hopping. Next person to visit today is Claire Daly. Click on the heart to go to her blog.

Thanks for visiting today. Don’t forget to email me kathryn@katlodesigns.com to get a copy of the Occasions Seasonal Catalogue or Sale-a-bration flyer, or to enquire about joining the Art With Heart team, and please leave a comment as we love to get feedback!

September 30, 2014

My Stamp Club ladies asked me to show them how to use the new Stampin' Up! Blendabilites. They are a new product in this year's Annual Catalogue. Have you seen them yet?

I hadn't done much playing with them, so it was great to do a bit of research and plan some projects for the Stamp Club.

I chose the Life in the Forest stamp set, as the images are quite small and simple - which is good when you have 6-8 ladies all waiting to use the same stamp and the same markers.

We made three cards, all of them inspired by ones I had found on google images and adapted to suit the Blendabilities instead of other methods of colouring.

For this first one we kept the card really simple, stamping the background with Lovely as a Tree stamp set and then just lightly sponging the green and blue. The card which inspired this was watercoloured all over.

We stamped the fox from Life in the Forest direct onto the card and sponged around.

The second one was much the same again, no background stamping, but the same sponging, accessorised with the polaroid framelit from On Film Framelits set and a couple of other finishing touches that added texture and colour, inspired by a card from Maria Willis.

For our third practice run of colouring the fox with the Pumpkin Pie Blendabilities, we really stepped up the card - again inspired by one on Google Images which unfortunately didn't have a legible name on it and I've not been able to find again, but a really lovely card - we all adored how the black layers underneath made the other colours pop.

By this time the Stamp Club ladies had coloured the fox three times for practise and also coloured the trees and the mushroom, so it was a great introduction to the Blendabilities.

This coming Saturday is World Card Making Day and I will be having a casual stamping get together in my stamping room from 11 until 3 (finishing at 3pm sharp). If you've not coloured with the Blendabilities before, come along and give it a go. I am also planning on trying out a couple of techniques I've not done for a while, including Brick Wall and Faux Tiles. Let me know if you can come along.

World Card Making Day specials - from 1st to 6th October, Stampin' Up! are offering some discounted items, including ink pads, A4 card stock, some envelopes, Fast Fuse and refill and several stamp sets. Pop back tomorrow to see the full list and the link to my online store.

September 18, 2014

Just a quick post today to share a couple of cute projects I have worked on over the last month. They weren't particularly time consuming projects, but I started a new job and had a couple of weekends away, so finding time to finish them was a bit of a challenge!

The first one uses the Flower Patch photopolymer stamp set on page 156 of the Stampin' Up! Annual catalogue.

The stamp set has a matching framelit set for easy cutting, and you can purchase the two products in a 15% off bundle, however for this project, because the shapes are so simple, I just hand cut them with scissors.

The second project uses the gorgeous Perfect Peacock stamp from page 170 of the Annual Catalogue.

I've brushed some Typeset Designer Series Paper with artist's Gesso, allowed it to dry, stamped the image with Jet Black Stazon, then done a very rough, light colouring with Pistachio Pudding, Coastal Cabana and Crisp Canteloupe Markers, added some gold sequins from the sequin trim and layer onto Basic Black Card,, Gold Soiree Designer Series Paper and Coastal Cabana card.

Nice to have such gorgeous images to play around with.

If you're on my email newsletter list, look out in your inbox for my September newsletter where I have some other cards I have created in the last 6 weeks or so. See you soon!

June 21, 2014

Welcome to our final ESAD blog hop for the 2013-2014 Stampin’ Up! Annual Catalogue, especially if you are coming to me from Andrea Buckland's blog - welcome.

These retiring products have been among our favourites, so we thought we’d give them another good bash before they are no longer available for sale.

Which retiring products am I going to miss?

I've picked out three of my favourites from the last catalogue year - Betsy’s Blossoms Stamp Set, Bug Me Stamp Set and the really gorgeous Simply Fabulous Simply Sent Kit.

But, before I show you more of my Bug Me Betsy Blossom Cards, you may be wondering :

What is ESAD?

ESAD stands for "Extra Special Australasian Demonstrators" and is a facebook group just for Australian and New Zealand Independent Stampin' Up! demonstrators.

We love what we do & love to share with our customers, friends and blog visitors. We also share what we love in our ESAD Demonstrator community, through swaps, challenges, sharing knowledge, ideas & friendship and we're always there to help and support each other.

So if you are a Stampin' Up! demonstrator located in Australia or New Zealand then please feel free to leave me a comment with your email address then I'll contact you with information on how to join our group.

I've had these little frames in my collection for a while and decided to fill them up with cheerfulness - I've loved Bug Me and Betsy's Blossoms stamp sets and will be keeping them in my stash as they are so useful and cute!

Can you imagine these grouped on a nursery wall?

Or even without the frames, they'd make a super cute pack of note cards for someone special.

If you've left me a comment and are ready to continue on the blog hop, click on her name here to go to Sally William's blog now.

Here's the list of participants in the blog hop. If you get lost or disconnected, you can always come back here and copy the next persons link in to your browser.

June 20, 2014

Almost all of us have family members, friends and neighbours who have been affected by breast cancer. This widespread disease has also touched the lives of members of the Stampin' Up! family, and contributions to breast cancer research have been an imortant part of Stampin' Up!'s philanthropic outreach.

Stampin' Up! are currently selling Ready. Set. Send. kits through the National Breast Cancer Foundation (NBCF) and will donate $10 to NBCF for each kit sold. The Ready. Set. Send. kit features handmade cards and includes five thank you cards, five birthday cards and 10 envelopes.

These fantastic card packs would make a great gift, but are awesome to have on hand when you realise you need a card in a hurry but don't have time to make one from scratch. Your recipient still gets a beautiful hand made card, and you get the satisfaction of knowing you supported a very, very good cause, the National Breast Cancer Foundation.

Packs are only $19.95 plus postage (remember $10 goes to the NBCF) and you can order one or several packs online here.

March 22, 2014

Firstly, HUGE CONGRATULATIONS to VICKI MARTINEZ from Templestowe for winning first prize in our Prize Draw at the Melbourne Women’s Expo at the Royal Exhibition Building last weekend. Vicki wins a lovely basket of Stampin’ Up! goodies.

I’ve had a quieter start to this year thanks to focusing on a few family things (which luckily a business like Stampin’ Up! allows me the flexibility to do) but things are settling down now, and before my birthday month is completely over, I wanted to throw myself a bit of a Stampin’ Party!

Hence I am introducing - End of March Madness, starting with a Hip Hip Hooray party at my place next Saturday afternoon.

Register with me and purchase your kit ($34.95) via credit card, bank transfer or paypal – (I can email you a paypal invoice), turn up on Saturday afternoon by 2pm, then as a group we will sit down in my classroom, assemble our stamps, I will show you which pieces to stamp and help you assemble your 20 cards. There is plenty of room for 8 people seated comfortably and I have eight kits in stock so don’t wait, let me know today if you’d like to give stamping and card making a go and see what it’s all about.

If you’re shy, why not ask a friend to come with you? Places are limited to eight, so get in quick if there are two of you. I will throw in tea, coffee and a snack and you will go home with a smile on your face, 20 finished cards, a stamp set, ink spot and any leftover pieces from the kit, having had a very fun afternoon!

Did I mention it works out at only $1.75 per card for 20 cards! Bargain!!

I need to know if you are coming as there are only eight places available, so please rsvp to this email, or phone me on 0418 361 931.

Again, the kit cost is just $34.95* per person, and you get everything you need to make 20 cards! We are going to have so much fun. My stamping room is at the back of my house and is very easy to find off Yarra Road in Croydon North, so don’t hesitate, reserve your place now.

Oh, and since it’s my birthday month, you are very welcome to bring me a birthday card! LOL

*If you can’t make the class, you can order a kit from my online store, however you will be charged $5.95 postage on top of the $34.95.

What else is happening for End of March Madness?

I will be running several new classes over the next couple of weeks, as well as the 50-50 promotion.

What the heck is the 50-50 promotion?

The 50-50 board has 50 numbered squares on it from one to fifty. Every time someone orders product valued at $50 or more, their name goes on a square. When the board is full, a random number draw will decide which person receives a $50 gift voucher from me to spend on any current Stampin’ Up! products. The voucher is valid until the 31st July 2014 so you will be able to save it to order from the brand new catalogue in July if you like!

The Stamp Club girls met this week, and their minimum required order to be in Stamp Club is $50 each month, so all of the Stamp Club ladies have already got their name on the 50-50 board, once, twice or even three times depending on their order total.

Getting your name on the board applies to online orders, as well as phone or email orders, or orders placed at classes, parties or workshops.

So if you’ve been thinking of placing an order, now’s the time to so and get your name on the 50-50 board to be in with a chance to receive a $50 voucher.

New Classes:

Mega March Madness Birthday Bash Bundle Class

Want to learn to stamp and make cards in one really fun class where you get five hours of stamping time, detailed instructions and samples, to create up to 40 simple, fun cards AND take home nearly $150.00 worth of products?

How?

Using the Birthday Bash Bundle on page 5 of the Sale-a-bration Flyer, we will get together in my stamping room - arriving between 9.30 & 10am, stamping until around 3.00pm on Thursday 3rd April (or alternate date : 10.00-10.30am until around 3.30pm on Saturday 12th April)

Your kit includes a full pack of Whisper White A4 cardstock (40 sheets), 40 envelopes, Bakers Twine, 5 x In Colour Markers, Rhinestones and two stamp sets which you get to take home.

Class suits beginners - or people who want to build up a quick stash of simple, fun birthday cards to have on hand.

Kits must be ordered and paid for before Thursday 27th March for the Thursday 3rd April class in order for kits to arrive on time. If you plan to attend the Saturday 12th class, kits must be ordered and paid for by Sunday 30th March in order to get the Banner Blast stamp set which is no longer available after the 31st March.

You might pay up to $300 for this elsewhere, but you won't pay $250, or even $200 for this fantastic class!

In true end of March Madness Style, I'm offering this class at a steal.

You won’t even pay $150, and you get to take home almost that amount in product!

This 5 hour class will be available for just $135 per person. That's only $3.35 per card for 40 cards and you'll have plenty of leftover supplies as well as a 5 beautiful Stampin’ Write Markers and TWO stamp sets to take home!

I can take payment by credit card over the phone, online bank transfer or Paypal.

Register today, and please let me know if you already own the In Colour Markers or the Banner Blast stamp set, as we will substitute those for other items of the same value. You will also need to nominate Wood Block or Clear Mount stamp sets. If you order Clear Mount stamps, you will need to bring your own clear blocks to the class.

If you aren’t able to attend on a weekday, this class will also run Saturday 12th April.

I will send a reminder of these upcoming events in the next week, and my April Newsletter will be coming out in a week or so too. Don’t forget, Sale-a-bration ends on 31st March and I will be taking Sale-a-bration orders right up to close of business on that day.

February 27, 2014

I promised I would show off some of the bits and pieces from our beautiful Stampin' Up! stand at the Melbourne Scrapbook & Papercraft Expo last week.

At the Expo, I demonstrated our new Spiral Flower Originals Die which is on page 32 of the Celebrate the Everyday Occasions Catalogue.

This die allows you to make the cutest flowers! One of my kind team members made a couple of sample projects and half a dozen spare flowers for our Create, Care & Share event earlier this month and it inspired me to make a few more samples and to take the die to the show to teach others what it can do.

This card was inspired by a wall frame decor piece I saw online, created by Cindy Hall at Prettyimpact.com.

I've stamped the Swallowtail Butterfly stamp twice, lining it up on the reverse of the same piece of card, and colouring it with our fabulous Stampin' Write markers.

The butterflies antennas are drawn onto the card base with the black Stampin' Write marker, and one wing is attached lying flat on the card.

The Little Leaves Sizzlet creates the leaves to compliment the Strawberry Slush flower made using the Spiral Flower Originals Die.

I'll be back over the weekend to give you some more closeups of some of the show projects - in particular the heart box which has a Spiral Flower on the lid.

January 21, 2014

I've been Stampin' Up! a storm this past week with a favourite, versatile stamp set, the Six Sided Sampler from Stampin' Up!

This is a terrific Stamp Set and Punch Bundle for any occasion.

Woodmount Bundle $63.50 Stamp set only $46.95

Clearmount Bundle $54.95 Stamp set only $36.95

Punch $27.95

I've made a couple of really simple cards, teaming the hexagons with the Gorgeous Grunge stamp set and a couple of greeting sets.

Firstly some masculine cards - as it's really hard to think them up on the spot when you need a card for a male.

Then the card making ideas were just flowing, so I switched the colours and created half a dozen cards for some females who I had reason to think of this week.

I just love these cards in Pistachio Pudding,Calypso Coral and Crisp Cantaloupe. I made 10 or 11 cards with these designs and also taought them at a class and a Stampin' Party. Very effective and fun, but I can think of plenty more people to send them too, so I might have to get the production line happening!

On Friday this week I will be participating in a blog hop where 25 Stampin' Up! demonstrators are going to show you a stack of projects made with Sale-a-bration products. Sale-a-bration starts next Tuesday, and we can't wait! I hope you'll join us on Friday from 10am for a tour of blog land to see some amazing creativity!

Kathryn (Lowe) Ruddick

Search

Ideas Book & Catalogue

A Note from Kathryn

The content of this blog is the sole responsibility of Kathryn (Lowe) Ruddick as an Independent Stampin' Up! Demonstrator. The use of and content of the classes, services, or products offered on this blog is not endorsed by Stampin' Up!
Stamped images on this page are copyright Stampin' Up! 1990-2013. All designs and tutorials are for your personal inspiration only. As per Stampin' Up! policy, I am only able to sell Stampin' Up! products and give Stampin' Up! prizes to Australian residents.

Shirley is a good friend I made working on EastLink together. She ended up moving to Darwin before the project was finished, and as a parting gift I started this mini album for her "Your EastLink Journey".